It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haladas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Haladas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Botka is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Haladas can pretend not to have heard.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Haladas know it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
David Botka falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Andras Bese was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
David Botka falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
5 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
0‑0 against FC Midtjylland, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haladas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Haladas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Botka is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Akos Fiola was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.36. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
In brief
Player ratingsViktor Sallai misses from twelve yards
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haladas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Haladas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Botka is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
0‑6 against Real Madrid. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
Balazs Botka was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match7 Nov 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Haladas and Real Madrid in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad9 Nov 2026
David Botka falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Gustavo Neves has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.34, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Haladas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. René Meléndez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Peter Nagy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Viktor Nagy is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
1‑11. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 23 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
12 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Haladas and Real Madrid in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad26 Oct 2026
David Botka falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Norbert Szélpál.
Successful dribbles: 43. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match17 Oct 2026
Szabolcs Fiola wins it after the whistle should have gone
95 minutes played. Szabolcs Fiola found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Vasas went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haladas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Haladas are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Haladas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Botka is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Andras Bese was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A performance of 8.17 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad12 Oct 2026
René Meléndez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every Haladas game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Debrecen runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
0‑0 against Rio Ave, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haladas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
1‑3 to Debrecen, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Haladas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Botka is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 6.54 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Haladas have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Haladas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Balazs Botka was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
David Botka falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gustavo Neves. 1‑0 against Bekescsaba, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.02 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Position 2, 12 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Viktor Nagy reports back to Haladas with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Ujpest left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Sep 2026
David Botka falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Haladas, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haladas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Szabolcs Fiola has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Diosgyor made Haladas work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Haladas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Botka is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Mate Botka is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Haladas will try very hard not to make too much of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haladas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haladas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Haladas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Botka is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The offer from Ferencvaros for Szabolcs Fiola was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $320.0K sale of Balazs Sallai
He is going to Fehervar, the club has $320.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Balazs Botka was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Fehervar paid $320.0K and Haladas took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad17 Aug 2026
David Botka falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Mate Botka has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Add another name to the list: Ferencvaros have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Szabolcs Fiola. The answer from Haladas has not changed — yet.
Balazs Botka was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
David Botka falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.53, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haladas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Haladas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Botka is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Haladas have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.